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Six hundred fourteen guests collected complimentary shaved ice at 1618 E. 20th St. on March 30 when Derrick and Sallee Hansen threw a VIP preview for Farmington's first Bahama Buck's. The formal grand opening followed April 3, making the Hansens the operators of the closest tropical dessert franchise to the Four Corners: the nearest competing outlet sits roughly 180 miles south in Albuquerque.

Sallee Hansen's connection to the brand runs deeper than a business decision. Her first job was at a Bahama Buck's location, a personal history that gives the Farmington franchise an origin story the corporate playbook didn't script.

Farmington's roughly 46,000 residents provide the population base, but the Hansens are counting on a far larger draw. The city anchors a Four Corners retail trade area of nearly 300,000 people spanning San Juan County, adjacent Colorado counties, and the eastern Navajo Nation, with weekend shopper counts running as high as 150,000. Retail trade is already San Juan County's second-largest employment sector, supporting 5,214 jobs in a county where the median household income sits at $53,020. The Hansens are expected to fully staff the location with approximately 25 employees.

The brand behind the shaved ice is a 35-year-old Lubbock, Texas institution. Blake Buchanan launched Bahama Buck's in the summer of 1990 with a single ice shaver as a college side project, began franchising in 1993, and has since grown to more than 108 locations from California to Puerto Rico. Buchanan runs Bahama Buck's Franchise Corporation alongside his father Paul Buchanan and long-time partner Eric Lee. The company ranks as the nation's leading tropical-themed dessert franchise and holds a spot on the Franchise Times Top 500. The U.S. Small Business Administration spotlighted it as a small-business success story, specifically citing its use of the SBA 504 loan program to acquire corporate headquarters in Lubbock.

Franchisees pay a $34,500 initial fee, with total investment ranging from roughly $303,700 to more than $800,000 depending on build-out. Ongoing royalties run 6 percent of gross sales, with an additional 2 percent marketing contribution. Stores typically occupy 800 to 1,800 square feet in strip centers, power centers, or malls, a footprint that fits naturally into the E. 20th Street commercial corridor.

The menu centers on Sno shaved ice in more than 100 flavors, alongside Island Smoothies, Acai Bowls, Bahama Sodas, Snoblast, Frostalattés, and Iced Lemonade.

The Farmington opening fills a conspicuous geographic void. American Indian and Alaska Native residents make up 38.5 percent of San Juan County's 121,000 residents, and the county's Four Corners communities previously had no Bahama Buck's within 180 miles. The franchise is the brand's first foothold in northern New Mexico.